


Rings

by Grassy



Category: Paradise Kiss
Genre: Angst, Community: 30_memories, F/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-08
Updated: 2012-04-08
Packaged: 2017-11-03 07:29:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/378863
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Grassy/pseuds/Grassy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A woman is defined by the wedding ring that she wears.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Rings

**Author's Note:**

> Still more post-series angst! Gah! Why can’t I just write George and Yukari together, happily after all and whatnot? So not fair… I will write George/Yukari happiness, I will! Someday. When, y’know, my muses let me move past the angst for a bit. Stupid muses.
> 
> Prompt: 02 - Rings

It was most strange, Yukari thought, to have an actual wedding band on her ring finger. The cool platinum soon warmed in response to her body temperature, but the initial chill had shocked her.

That wasn’t to say, of course, that she’d never worn rings on that finger before. Despite never being one for much jewelry, the occasional shine of something pretty would catch her eye and was shoved onto whichever finger it fit best. However…

None of those rings meant anything like this one did. There had only ever been one other to make her shiver, though that had been in sheer happiness and grief. The beautifully beaded butterfly that once adorned her finger had healed one of the many cracks in Yukari’s heart, even as it shattered a bit more.

Some days, when Hiro was away on business and the kids were in school, Yukari removed the warm metal band and slid on the delicate ring that symbolized her first marriage; the marriage of her heart. She would gaze into the lighted vanity mirror and will her mind to show the girl she had once been, rather than the woman she was now. Then her eyes would drift shut and she’d once more be in George’s arms, surrounded by the beloved scent of his cologne. A small kiss was always placed on the most sensitive spot of her neck, the spot that always made her breath catch and her heart jump.

For those few moments, she was home again and nothing could make her want to leave it.

Reality gave her no choice, though. The warm arms that embraced her slim form faded away, as did the heady scent of cologne, leaving behind nothing but Yukari’s never-whole heart.

Tears made a lonely trail down the woman in the mirror’s sad face and Yukari wondered why everything seemed so blurred. Then she remembered.

The mature woman in the mirror, though still extremely beautiful, was nothing at all like the uncertain, newly-awoken creature Yukari had been as a teenager.

A slim hand, tipped in perfectly manicured nails, dried her now-red eyes with a soft tissue as Yukari pulled herself out of the past and settled into herself once more. Makeup carefully reapplied to hide her weakness, she took her wedding ring off, to once more be entombed within the depths of the jewelry box that George had given her.

With a tiny smile, she slid her other wedding ring back on, wincing at the chill that had settled in the metal yet again.

By the time she greeted her children home from school, several hours later, all signs of George’s Yukari had been hidden in the depths of Yukari’s heart, waiting to again be worn with the most beautiful wedding ring in existence.


End file.
